Friday, 2 November 2012

The Squat and the Boarding Captain.

First of all, in case you read that title and hoped for some fan fiction where a Squat and an Imperial Freighter officer fall in love, you'll be more than a tad disappointed. As amazing as that story would be, this is about the limited edition Forge World Boarding Captain.... and a... Squat.

The Boarding Captain was obtained by a swap with one of the greatest examples of gentlemen I have ever known, and someone I've mentioned before on this very blog. You may remember a James, who, after taking time out of sculpting to chat to an over-enthusiastic giant from Wales and gave me a sculpted Empire Elector Count head he'd done. We kept in touch, and he happened to mention if I'd picked a certain something up this year at Games Day, I of course did, so he asked if he could buy or swap... and mentioned the Boarding Captain. I knew he was a pretty cool model so happily agreed. A few days later this guy pops up in the post! I've only now got to painting him, as I wasn't sure whether to use him for my chapter or not...

But then I couldn't resist. I mean, look at the model, he's stunning! The Storm Shield I actually looked into getting when kitbashing my Chapter Master together, but glad I didn't cause it looks superb on this guy. You may have noticed he has an old Mk V Jump Pack. This was originally intended for a Chaplain I'm working on, but then put it on this guy and thought it looked too good not too! I'll hopefully be able to magnetise it so I can switch with his regular backpack if needed. But I'm pretty happy with how he's looking so far! Not finished yet, as I need to blend a couple of bits together a little more and the base needs finishing, but so far so good!

Next...

You may or may not have seen some fluff I'd created for my chapter in which they fight off a Chaos Warband from an unknown planet, and find that it is inhabited with a small clan of Squats. They decide to take them to Mars where a great sense of machinery would help the Adeptus Mechanicus. Some Squat lobbied that they should be able to fulfil tradition and pay a debt to my Evandalists and help them, whether it be as crew to the battle barges or elsewhere. I wanted to include a couple in my force, and began to look at ways to do so.

One obvious thought was as a Techmarine. I picked up a techpriest squat from Ebay, but could'nt decide on how best to use him. So thoughts turned elsewhere, then inspiration struck during a battle. A few months back I'd had a go at using the rules for Telion, and really enjoyed what he did. Hes a great little upgrade for snipers, especially if you really need that Rocket Launcher to hit a vehicle or to try and take out those special weapon squad members! So, what about a Squat version of Telion? I looked through some of the back catalogues of Squats, and they all looked a little too old school to fit in my force. Then I saw the one! RATLINGS!!!

And here he is. I picked this guy up on Ebay, and was able to some sort of success, sculpt a beard on him to make him more Squat-like. I think it looks pretty good! He still needs a little work on him, but he's at the point where I can try and get some other stuff done and he looks alright. Pretty chuffed with the guy! I'm gonna make up some fluff for him and give him a name, but I can't wait to field him with my Scout snipers, who I need to add I also have to finish! Bad habit this not getting things done malarky.

So thats what I've been doing last few days, I've got a couple of bits coming to sort out my two Chaplains, the biker and foot ones, and then it'll be a case of painting as much as I can before the all dayer in just over a weeks time. Cannae wait!

Ha nah man, mines not anywhere near that length! I may be tempted one day though to try and recreate my chin pubes in miniature form=] Yeah the boarding captain is awesome, look forward to using him and hopefully crushing some heretic skulls!